The UCF Knights saw attendance drop to its lowest level in four seasons as the team’s losing continues to draw fans away from the stadium.
The UCF Knights started the season with optimism and hope.
Sure there were players to replace and positions to fill, but the program was in a healthy place with a seeming comfortable place atop the American Conference even in a retooling year and a bowl berth at the end of the season. That is an important place to be as a program.
That seems so long ago.
It seems so long ago since 39,184 fans packed into Bright House Networks Stadium for a Thursday night opener against Florida International. It seems a long time ago that 36,484 fans arrived fro UCF’s game against Furman. Those are hardly teams that will bring the fans in.
The bottom has indeed fallen off for UCF. The program has been thrown into turmoil with George O’Leary stepping down from the interim athletic director position and rumors continuing to swirl that this may very well be his last year as had coach at UCF.
Things certainly bottomed out Saturday both on the field — a 40-13 loss to send UCF to 0-6 — and in the stands. Aside from the ESPNews cameras picking up fans with bags on their head calling for offensive coordinator Brent Key’s dismissal and shots of large swaths of Bright House Networks Stadium with very few fans (literally a handful in some areas), the Knights for the first time in a long time had no one care to show up for them.
The official listed attendance for Saturday’s loss to Connecticut was 26,669. According to Shannon Green and Alicia DelGallo of the Orlando Sentinel, it was the lowest attendance at a UCF home game since Nov. 25, 2011 — a win over UTEP during Thanksgiving weekend to close a 5-7 season in Conference USA.
The Knights thought they had built a program to withstand some of these ups and downs. There is more fan interest and devotion to this team than at any point in the program’s history. The momentum from back-to-back conference championships does have some carry over.
It can all fall apart pretty quickly. Going out to see a losing team — especially a winless team — is rough and hard on the pocketbook. Convincing someone to spend the hours on a Saturday it takes to go to a college football game is a pretty large investment. The Knights are not making it worth the cost.
That is a problem for UCF though. This is not a program that is self sustaining quite yet. The Knights were hoping to hit the “bowl game every year” level. From there, competing for conference titles and winning games becomes normal. The lack of interest from fans seems to be a response to the losing.
And it will only get worse. The Knights could lose some of the ground they gained in the Orlando market with a disastrous season like this. Especially if it is matched with another losing season next year (new coach or not).
The poor attendance Saturday is yet another sign of how bad things are getting for the Knights. It may be tough to turn this season around — the schedule remains tough and two weekday games to end the season might be barren if this team is 0-10 or 0-11.
The Knights though will have to find a way to get interest again. And the best way to do that is to win.
